“Isn’t that a sub?”: Customers can't name any product other than a Whopper in new Burger King campaign

Most brands do not want to advertise that audiences don’t know their brand. Although, it seems that if you’re as much of a household name as Burger King, other little details like the names of your products can be conceded in the name of a chuckle. In a new outdoor and print campaign tapping into the simple but evergreen fun of people not knowing the answer to something, Swedish agency Ingo is advertising answers from a global Burger King survey showing participants failing to name anything other than a Whopper. While the campaign aims to celebrate “the fame of their flagship burger”, explains a release from Ingo, it has revealed some fantastic creative guesses in the process.

The global survey was run this April in London, Tokyo, Mexico City and Stockholm, with 85 per cent of participants managing to name the Whopper and only ​​three per cent able to name two other burgers on its menu correctly. From this 97 per cent, wrong answers include the “Volume Burger”, “Submarino”, “German burger”, “Super Flamin”, “4 story special” and “Megawhoppa cheese”.

For the more health-conscious customer, guesses ranged from the “Egg tomato burger”, the “Potato Sandwich Burger” and the “Croissant”. Other valiant efforts include: “Crunch”, “Huge Whopping Burger” and “Cheesy pop”. At the survey’s close, Burger King highlighted two key takeaways for the brand: “People have a limited understanding of what Burger King products are named” and “‘Fishy Wishy’ will (probably) never be a thing.”

In the past, Ingo’s penchant for unexpected food campaigns has resulted in some memorable – and highly successful – branding exercises. In its Mouldy Whopper campaign, the agency showed a Whopper rotting as proof of its lack of preservatives. Meanwhile, Not Big Macs saw Burger King and Ingo rename Burger King products with names like “Anything but a Big Mac” and “Burger Big Mac Wished It Was”, as a jab at McDonald’s after it lost its Big Mac trademark. Both campaigns landed on media fanfare. Only time will tell if its choice to create a campaign around incorrect survey answers, complete with participant handwriting, will make the same splash, but it seems Ingo has achieved its aim to highlight the staying power of the Whopper on customer imagination.